Marketing and communication in 2011. How to cut through the crap. #4

SO HERE WE ARE IN 2011. Never has there been a more competitive time to be in the business of marketing. There have never been more ways of spending budgets. There has never been more pressure on budgets. Or, come to that, more theories about what you should and shouldn’t be doing. What is clear is that whilst many are waffling on about this trend and that development, some are simply getting on with doing things that get results. We are some of those people. And this is some of how we do it.

PART 4: BE DIFFERENT IN THE CATEGORY

This sounds like a huge generalisation.
It is.
But it’s a generalisation that is generally very true.

Isn’t it odd, given that marketing and advertising is such a dynamic branch of business, that in almost every category, brands act and communicate very similarly to each other?

It’s not that surprising really. People see the most successful brand in the category and think “let’s do that”. And over time it just becomes the standard way of communicating.

But the power of simply acting differently in your category is immense.

Suddenly, everything you do stands out.

Suddenly, everyone else in your category looks like ‘everyone else’.

You become the interesting one.

The one people want to be with.

Think of some of the brands who have dared to be different in their category, (Apple, Virgin, Cadbury, Innocent or Fentimans, for example) it reads like a who’s who of successful brands.

This is not simply coincidence.

And the best thing about being different in the category is that it’s FREE.

It doesn’t cost any more than not being different in the category.

In fact it can make it seem like your budget is going a lot further.


PART 1: CREATIVITY & CRAFT ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
PART 2: THE BEST COMMUNICATION IS STILL ABOUT PEOPLE 
PART 3: FOCUS YOUR COMMUNICATION ON CHANGING BEHAVIOUR, NOT JUST CHANGING ATTITUDE.